EMPOWERING INCLUSION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Government at all levels should create an environment that is all inclusive
If the first duty of any government is the provision of the basic needs of security, welfare and a sense of purpose, can those at the helms of affairs in our country claim to have lived up to these high expectations? This question is important as Nigeria joins other countries to mark the World Social Justice Day 2025 with the theme, ‘Empowering Inclusion: Bridging Gaps for Social Justice’, emphasizing the significance of inclusive policies and social protection in managing systematic inequality. In the 5th Wave of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) General Household Survey 2023/2024 which tracked the resilience of Nigerians over time, approximately two out of three households indicated being unable to eat healthy, nutritious or preferred foods because of lack of money. That level of social exclusion is dangerous for any country.
Indeed, the reality of the Nigerian condition was recently brought home by the 2024 report by Oxfam, an international confederation of NGOs working with partners in over 90 countries to end the injustices that cause poverty. “Nigeria’s wealth gap is a moral and social crisis. While a few individuals amass immense wealth, over 133 million Nigerians face hunger daily. This extreme inequality is largely unearned, built on inheritance, monopolies, and unfair advantages,” said the Oxfam Country Director, John Makina. “We must act now to create a fairer system—by taxing the richest, addressing injustices, and investing in services that lift millions out of poverty.”
It is concerning that domestic food price inflation in Nigeria remains among the highest globally. This price surge has strained household incomes, making it increasingly difficult for low-income families to afford basic food items. To compound the challenge, the federal government is not serious about bringing down the prices of essential food commodities in a bid to alleviate the current suffering by Nigerians. After publicly announcing an import duty waiver programme on food items expected to run till 31 December 2024 last July, the federal government refused to implement its own policy.
Today, millions of citizens can hardly eat a good meal a day. Millions are jobless while many of the employed people are not paid living wages. Others get their daily living from the streets. But the main problem has been in the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Going by the Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index, which ranks governments based on what they are doing to tackle this gap, Nigeria fares badly because its social spending (on health, education and social protection) is abysmally low. The solution to the problem can therefore not be in some tokenist programmes that are neither well thought-out nor enduring.
While inequalities and social injustice may not be peculiar to Nigeria, the latest Oxfam report reveals that economic rewards are “increasingly concentrated” at the top. Yet, the situation is becoming very desperate for most Nigerians despite the denial by some delusional politicians. In our country today, many basic services such as education, health and infrastructure are decrepit or in short supply, while a huge demographic crisis is looming. The consequences of this situation are not only for the victims but also those who feed fat at the expense of the poor in both the public and private sectors.
The World Social Justice Day 2025 therefore provides another opportunity for stakeholders in the country to understand that the plight of the under-privileged is steadily worsening with many going to bed with less than a survival diet. The federal government and authorities in the 36 states must work to provide food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine how inclusive a society is and whether there is social justice in the country.
